Soros fails in appeal

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George Soros, the billionaire currency speculator, has lost a
bid to clear his name after a French appeals court upheld a
conviction for insider trading and ordered him to pay
€2.2£ million ($3.7 million) in fines.

A three-judge panel backed a lower court ruling in December 2002
that Soros had acted on inside knowledge before buying and selling
shares in Societe Generale bank in 1988.

The court concluded that the Hungary-born financier had been
tipped off by a friend of then president Francois Mitterrand,
enabling him to acquire 160,000 shares £in the newly
privatised bank just days before a lucrative "raid" by a cartel of
fellow speculators. The court said he was "well informed about the
target, the means to carry out the operation, its size and its
participants".

Soros, 74, who achieved worldwide fame by "breaking" the Bank of
England in the ERM crisis of 1992, has denied acting improperly,
insisting that the share trades were part of a $US50 million ($65
million) "bouquet" of shares in a mix of struggling French
companies.

"My reputation is at stake," he told the court in February. The
conviction is the only legal stain in his 40-year career as an
investor.

Soros's lawyers said he would take the case to France's highest
tribunal, the Court of Cassation. "Mr Soros maintains his
innocence. He is confident that he will ultimately be vindicated,"
a spokesman said.